It felt great to be back in storytime with the families of the preschoolers today.
I read Last Stop on Market Street, because I wanted the adults to hear the picture book that won the Newbery Medal this year. (see my post on January 11) It is a longer book than I usually read with this group, but most of the children were over 3. This is the first time I’ve read the story to a group. I needed more practice, because some of the dialogue is in dialect. I’ve read it to my grandchildren, but I didn’t have to hold the book off to the side. 🙂 I’ll get better the more often I read it.
No Yeti Yet by Mary Ann Fraser tells a delightful story o
f 2 young children who go in search of Yeti, although they’ve never seen one before. By looking carefully at the cover before opening the book, your child may have an idea of what Yeti looks like. Don’t worry, Yeti turns out to be very friendly and helpful.
Awake Beautiful Child by Amy Krouse Rosenthal was another book I chose more for parents than children. Notice the title has the letters A B and C capitalized, in order. The entire book is comprised of 3 word phrases with the letters ABC capitalized, in order. There are 32 phrases that loosely tell a story of a child’s day, leading up to bedtime.
I called up some of the preschoolers to help me find the capital letters A B and C in each phrase. I asked them to point out the letters for me. (I gave big hints to most of them – pointing with my fingers.) It is not a book that works easily in storytime, but I think it has great potential in one-to-one situations.
There is enough humor to keep adults engaged, e.g. Alert: Boring Copyright, and there are objects on each page that begin with A B or C. The author invites you to create your own ABC phrase with your child and submit it online.
We ended with a simple concept book on BIG and little. A little child wants to be big and imagines all his toys coming alive in a big way. Each time, however, he realizes the limitations of being very big. At the end he is Perfectly little.
~Maureen
